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Submission + - Apple Said to Negotiate Deep Payments Discounts from Big Banks (bankinnovation.net)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Apple is including some sort of automatic credit card payment system with the iPhone 6. It's using some security feature of the phone and system to negotiate a cheaper transaction fee.

Basically, there are two kinds of credit card transactions: card-present, and card-not-present. The former is cheaper because there's less risk of fraud. The article says that Apple has negotiated the card-present rate for its iPhone payment system, even though the card is not present. Presumably, this is because of some other security features that reduce the risk of fraud.

Submission + - Comcast Using JavaScript Injection To Serve Ads on Public Wi-Fi Hotspots (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For some time now, Comcast has setting up public Wi-Fi hotspots, some of which are run on the routers of paying subscribers. The public hotspots are free, but not without cost: Comcast uses JavaScript to inject self-promotional ads into the pages served to users. 'Security implications of the use of JavaScript can be debated endlessly, but it is capable of performing all manner of malicious actions, including controlling authentication cookies and redirecting where user data is submitted. ... Seth Schoen, the senior staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, reviewed the data ...and said that "there ended up being JavaScript in the page that was not intended by the server." Even if Comcast doesn't have any malicious intent, and even if hackers don't access the JavaScript, the interaction of the JavaScript with websites could "create" security vulnerabilities in websites, Schoen said. "Their code, or the interaction of code with other things, could potentially create new security vulnerabilities in sites that didn't have them," Schoen said in a telephone interview.'

Submission + - Is there any scenario where violating net neutrality acceptable? 1

Submitted by rcht148
rcht148 writes: Ever since I heard about T-Mobile's 'Music Freedom' announcement, I have been asking myself this question. If you're unaware of it, T-Mobile recently announced that music streaming from some services (Pandora, iHeartRadio, iTunes Radio, Rhapsody, Slacker, Spotify and some others) will NOT be counted against the customers 4G LTE data cap. I love T-Mobile for the much needed shake-up to the wireless industry that they provided and thanks to them my wireless bill has gone down by almost 40%. In lay man terms this promo sounds great because you get more for your data (Your 2GB 4G LTE plan now means 2GB 4G LTE + music streaming from some providers*). I can't seem to accept this as an engineer. It violates the definition of net neutrality. So, I've been asking myself the broader question, in what scenario does a net neutrality violation become acceptable? If you're a net neutrality supporter do you find this service acceptable?

Submission + - How China's E-waste Capital Is Trying to Clean Itself Up (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: If you want to see where your old electronics go to die, take a trip to Guiyu. For two decades, PCs, phones and other electronics have been shipped to this town on the southeast coast of China, where locals in thousands of small workshops pull them apart with buzz saws and pliers to extract the valuable components inside. But things may finally be changing. A sign posted by a small stream in the town declares that Guiyu will crack down on any 'acid cleaning, and burning activities.' And residents said it's rare now to see 'board burning' in the town itself, with that and other dangerous activities having been moved to an industrial park to the north.

Submission + - Restoring salmon to their original habitat... with a cannon!

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: Hydroelectric dams are one of the best and oldest sources of green, renewable energy, but — as the Three Gorges Dam in China exemplifies — they often cause a host of environmental and ecological problems and challenges. One of the more interesting ones is how to coax fish upstream in the face of these herculean walls that can often span more than 500 feet in height. While fish ladders might be a solution for some of the smaller dams, they're limited in application and success. Could Whooshh Innovations' Salmon Cannon, a pneumatic tube capable of launching fish up-and-over these dams, finally restore the Columbia River salmon to their original habitats?

Submission + - 700k New Zealand Internet Users Suffer Outage From Fake Celebrity Nudes Malware (techgeek.com.au)

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: techgeek reports, "Spark New Zealand – the country’s largest internet service provider – suffered a massive outage lasting nearly thirty hours from last Friday. The outage saw its nearly 700,000 customer base having slow or no internet connectivity on their mobile phones or computers – all because some users on their network wanted to see nude pics of celebrities. According to local media, some users clicked on a link that claimed to contain images from the recent dump of nude photos of several high profile female celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Ariana Grande. However, the link lead them to a page telling them they had to download a piece of software to view them – which was malware. ... Spark told the New Zealand Herald that it was a denial of service attack linked to some of its customers downloading malware was the reason why its network went down, and has taken steps to remedy the problem." — NBC News reports both phishing and malware attacks associated with the stolen photographs.

Submission + - Protesters Blockade Microsoft's Seattle Headquarters Over Tax Dodging (geekwire.com) 2

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: A thousand unionized healthcare workers protested outside Microsoft's Seattle offices over its Nevada tax dodge on Friday. Microsoft shareholders have pocketed more than $5.34 billion in tax savings as Washington State social services and schools have taken huge cuts. In a hearing Wednesday, the Supreme Court suggested it may hold the Legislature in contempt and order it to repeal all tax breaks to restore proper funding to K-12 schools and universities.

Submission + - Appeals Court Clears Yelp Of Extortion Claims (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: A U.S. appeals court cleared Yelp of charges of extortion related to its interaction with several small businesses who claim Yelp demanded that they pay for advertising or face negative reviews. While Yelp says it never altered a business rating for money, the court's finding was instead based on a strict reading of the U.S. extortion law, classifying Yelp's behavior as, at most, "hard bargaining."

Submission + - Long-lost satellite data reveal new insights to climate change (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Once stashed in warehouses in Maryland and North Carolina, images and video captured from orbit by some of NASA’s first environmental satellites in the mid-1960s are now yielding a trove of scientific data. The Nimbus satellites, originally intended to monitor Earth’s clouds in visible and infrared wavelengths, also would have captured images of sea ice, researchers at the University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center realized when they heard about the long-lost film canisters in 2009. After acquiring the film—and then tracking down the proper equipment to read and digitize its 16-shades-of-gray images, which had been taken once every 90 seconds or so—the team set about scanning and then stitching the images together using sophisticated software. So far, more than 250,000 images have been made public, including the first image taken by Nimbus-1 ( on 31 August 1964, of an area near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Besides yielding a wealth of sea ice data, the data recovery project, which will end early next year, could also be used to extend satellite records of deforestation and sea surface temperatures.

Submission + - Invasion Of Ukraine Continuing As Russia Begins Nuclear Weapons Sabre Rattling (news.com.au) 3

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: News.com.au reports, "This morning, Prime Minister Tony Abbott labelled Russia’s escalating and “open” invasion into Ukraine as “war”. But he was not only person using fighting words. ... on Friday, Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threat was simple. “I want to remind you that Russia is one of the most powerful nuclear nations. This is a reality, not just words.” It’s the first time in more than 25 years that Moscow has raised the spectre of nuclear war. The difference this time is that its tanks are already pouring over its western borders. “A great war arrived at our doorstep, the likes of which Europe has not seen since World War II,” Ukraine’s Defence Minister Valeriy Geletey wrote ... warning of “tens of thousands of deaths”. Putin appears to agree. Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports Putin has told the outgoing European Commission President ... : “If I want, I take Kiev in two weeks.” " — CNN reports, "The British government source told CNN on Friday that Russia has moved 4,000 to 5,000 military personnel — a figure far higher than one U.S. official's earlier claim of 1,000 troops. The soldiers are aligned in "formed units" and fighting around Luhansk and Donetsk.... And they may soon have company: Some 20,000 troops are on border and "more may be on the way," ..." — Newsweek reports, "Russia Has Threatened Nuclear Attack, Says Ukraine Defence Minister"

Submission + - Neandertals may have created cave art too (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: One of the biggest debates in archaeology is whether Neandertals were capable of the kind of abstract and symbolic expression that prehistoric modern humans demonstrated in abundance—for example, by painting animal images on the walls of caves like Chauvet and Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. Possible evidence for Neandertal art was reported a couple of years ago in the Spanish cave of El Castillo, but researchers are not sure whether Neandertals or modern humans painted a red disk on its wall 41,000 years ago—right around the time that modern humans entered Europe. Now, archaeologists working at Gorham’s Cave, a former Neandertal haunt on the coast of Gibraltar, report that they have found this crosshatched pattern etched into the hard rock floor of the cave. The pattern was deeply incised using some sort of stone tool and was found under archaeological layers dating back at least 39,000 years—but containing stone tools that only Neandertals made. Scientist argue that it is proof positive that Neandertals were just as capable of abstract thought as modern humans.

Submission + - AnandTech founder's "retirement" is a job at Apple Inc. (recode.net)

Submitted by gwstuff
gwstuff writes: Anand Lal Shimpi, the legendary hardware reviewer who founded and led AnandTech recently announced that he would retire from the tech writing business. On the heels of the announcement comes the news that he has joined Apple Inc. Unsurprisingly, the details of his new role in the company are unknown, with a typical "confirm, but won't provide details" statement from Apple.

Submission + - What Does Google Do With All The Information It Collects? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: About two thirds of websites run Google code (mostly Analytics, AdSense, and +1) that tells Google what you do there and where you came from. (Also Analytics is used by 63% of Fortune 500 companies and 71% of the top 10k websites.) 800 million Android phones are in use (that's 11% of all humans), telling Google pretty much everywhere they go, everything they do, and everyone they talk to. Hundreds of millions of people use Google Maps. Over 400 million people use Gmail, telling Google everything they write and receive by email. Plus untold millions use Google Toolbar. Does Google do anything with this data? And even if they "don't be evil" with it today, is there anything stopping them from "being evil" with it tomorrow? What about 20 years from now when they are a second-rate company and some investment group buys out their assets? Do you block Google code in your browsing habits? Do you run Google code on your websites?

Submission + - XKCD Author's Unpublished Book Remains a Best-Seller for 5 Months (xkcd.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: Tuesday is the official release date for the newest book from the geeky cartoonist behind XKCD — yet it's already become one of Amazon's best-selling books. Thanks to a hefty pre-order discount, one blogger notes that it's appeared on Amazon's list of hardcover best-sellers since the book was first announced in March, and this weekend it remains in the top 10. Randall Munroe recently announced personal appearances beginning this week throughout the U.S. (including Cambridge, New York, Seattle, and the San Francisco Bay Area) — as well as a Google Hangout on Friday, September 12. Just two weeks ago he was also awarded the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story — and now many of his appearances are already sold out.

Submission + - Battle of the heavy lift rockets

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Check out this very detailed and informative look at unstated competiton between NASA’s SLS rocket and SpaceX’s heavy lift rocket plans that are even more powerful than the Falcon Heavy.

Key quote: "It is clear SpaceX envisions a rocket far more powerful than even the fully evolved Block 2 SLS – a NASA rocket that isn’t set to be launched until the 2030s."

The SpaceX rocket hinges on whether the company can successfully build its new Raptor engine. If they do, they will have their heavy lift rocket in the air and functioning far sooner than NASA, and for far far far less money.

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